The scandal swirling around the recent firing of Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice, who reached a $475,000 settlement with the school Thursday, may be unique because of its high-profile nature, but it still has much in common with your average workplace controversy. ?...

"The lawyers did what they should have done in terms of analyzing the contract, but beyond that was the larger picture," David Garland added. ?...

One of the items that ought to be on organizations' crisis-management checklists is making sure the right people take part in any investigation and have a chance to express their views, according to Garland.

"It's important to be sure that the right decision makers are involved and devoting adequate time to process," he said. "When you have a potentially explosive issue like this, you need to make sure someone at the top is involved." ?...

Nobody's bashful about sharing information electronically, and technology keeps coming up with new ways for people to do that, Garland said. ?...

Taking — or not taking — disciplinary action based on the assumption that such a decision will never see the light of day is a bad idea, Garland said.